We have more than three decades of expertise serving the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense (DOD), and private industry.

The co-founder and chief executive of a company recognized as the world leader in pioneering computer simulation technologies for pharmaceutical and medical research and development will speak at the Antelope Valley Business Outlook Conference, traveling all the way from … Palmdale.

Speaking at the Feb. 22 conference will be Walter S. Woltosz, whose Lancaster-based Simulations Plus, Inc. and former subsidiary Words + came to international attention with groundbreaking development of augmentative communication systems for persons with severe disabilities, including internationally acclaimed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, author of “A Brief History of Time.”

But even that achievement is surpassed by the company’s success in developing absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) modeling and simulation software for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology, industrial chemicals, cosmetics, food, and herbicide industries. In vastly oversimplified terms, software and related services from Simulations Plus equip research scientists with predictive tools to far more quickly and accurately develop safe and effective drugs and other chemical compounds.

Founded in 1996, Simulations Plus, Inc. now operates in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. Traded on NASDAQ under SLP, the company has an enviable financial record. In a recent four-year period, Simulations Plus was reported in financial media to have averaged pre-tax return-on-invested-capital of 24%, one point higher than Apple Computer.

Beyond the business motive, it was necessity and compassion that led Walt and Ginger Woltosz to found Words + in 1981. Ginger’s mother was diagnosed with ALS, and it was thought that some of the inventions with a personal computer might be adapted to help her mother better cope with this devastating disease. The software was continuously developed and expanded over 30 years. Words+ was sold to an Ohio company on November 2011, but continues to operate partly out of the same Lancaster building as Simulations Plus.

The professional career of Walter S. Woltosz, who holds Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and Master of Science degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University and a Master of Administrative Science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, testifies to the potential of an engineering mind to change the world for the better.

Products emerging from the fertile minds at Simulations Plus, Inc. also sow the seeds for future generations of engineers and scientists. The company developed and sells interactive, educational software programs that simulate science experiments conducted in middle school, high school, and junior college science classes. Another product, “Abbreviate,” is a productivity software program.

Walt Woltosz began his professional career in U.S. Air Force blue in 1963, as an Air Launch Missile Systems Analyst for the Strategic Air Command before attending Auburn as an Airman Education and Commissioning Program (AECP) student. He worked in the aerospace industry for 12 years, where he pioneered and managed development of software for the simulation and design optimization of a the Space Shuttle ascent trajectory shaping commands, as well as a range of solid propellant rocket motors and missile systems, including the Advanced Terminal Interceptor (ATI), Advanced Medium Range Air-to-air Missile (AMRAAM), MidgetMan ballistic missile, and Pegasus air-launched satellite booster.

He has authored or co-authored over 80 scientific publications, podium presentations, and poster presentations relating to oral drug absorption, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, chemical structure-property modeling, and new chemical design strategies, and has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific meetings in the U.S., Europe, and Japan over the past fourteen years.